“Adults Don’t Need Baby Food”

What the Web thought of our anti-juicing rant.

Whether it’s a kale-filled smoothie or a ginger-flavored liquid lunch, constant chatter about juice-centric “cleanses” among the self-proclaimed health conscience has become a pervasive part of modern life. So Katy Waldman’s recent takedown of the trend (“Stop Juicing: It’s not healthy, it’s not virtuous, and it makes you seem like a jerk” Nov. 20) was bound to spark heated debate. On Twitter, a slim minority pushed back against Waldman’s thesis, but the majority amplified her message. Jessica Sochol (@Jess_So_Cool) tweeted:

Slate commenter Blue_Gill, meanwhile, pointed out there are other ways to eat the healthy ingredients of juice blends besides juicing:

You know another way to get the benefits of fruits and vegetables? ACTUALLY EAT THE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. Adults don’t need baby food.

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Writing in Business Insider, Hayley Hudson agreed that juicing at the exclusion of other foods is terrible but noted that juice can supplement an otherwise balanced diet. “It's important to clarify that it's not drinking juice that leaves you miserable — it's drinking only juice,” she wrote. Hudson acknowledged, however, that “everyone who [juices] acts elitist.”

After Daniel Kovalik brought the story of the death of his client, former Duquesne adjunct professor Margaret Mary Vojtko, to national attention in September, there was a great public outcry against the university. The hashtag #IamMargaretMary sprung up among academics, who thought that Vojtko’s death was directly attributable to her lack of benefits provided by her adjunct status.* L.V. Anderson decided to delve deeper into Vojtko’s story, traveling to her hometown and interviewing her friends and acquaintances (“Death of a Professor: An 83-year-old French instructor’s undignified death became a cause célèbre for exploited academics. But what really happened to Margaret Mary Vojtko?” Nov. 17). “Duquesne was not, as Anderson makes clear, responsible for Margaret Mary Vojtko’s death, or for the series of calamitous events that precipitated it,” Joanne McPortland of Patheos noted.

While the shortcoming of an adjunct’s compensation may not have played as direct a role in the very sad story as previously thought, it still served as a reminder of the failings of the university system in its treatment of nontenured professors. “It is always troubling to the conscience when I stop and think about the adjunct professors who helped teach me who are not paid what they deserve,” reflectedSlate commenter SPGx.

Wondering how much time you spent on some of the past week’s Slatestories? As Stephen Colbert pointed out in a segment on his show, it’s now easy to find out with our new feature showing the length of articles by the time it takes to read them. “Me and my fellow millennials don’t like to wait,” Colbert says. “Reading articles on the Internets takes foh-evah. That’s why I was thrilled to see a new time-saving feature on news, opinion, and stone-roofing supply site Slate.com. … Slateeven saved me time while saving me time by writing ‘M’ instead of ‘minutes,’ which saves me precious ‘inutes.’ ”Always glad to help, Stephen.